Everyone it seems believes they can run Sirius XM better than its current management team. With that in mind, I'd like to offer up my version.

1. Enough of the special over-priced plug and play radios. The cell phone companies have known this for years. The largest obstacle to gaining new subscribers in any subscription based business is the initial equipment cost. Sirius needs to offer their radios nearly free with an extended prepaid subscription plan. I'm willing to wager that many more subscribers could be gained by providing radios at little cost to the consumer, especially in these recessionary times.

2. Get rid of the crappy advertisers. This seems like a no-brainer to me, but if an ad qualifies as spam in my e-mail, Sirius XM should reject it as well. I do not need a pill to heighten my libido. Take better advertisers and less of them if necessary. Get back to the basics of what people purchase Satellite Radio for.

3. Get Sirius XM to Work. Another no-brainer in my opinion. Advertise the heck out of Sirius XM and make it "The Most Listened To Radio At Work. Terrestrial radio battles within itself to get "at work" listeners, because that's where the largest pool of radio listeners lies. It's also how Howard Stern became Howard Stern.

4. Offer Longer Term OEM Packages With New Cars. Getting Sirius XM free for 3 months, 6 months, or even a year is great. The problem is that most of America has all their available cash tied up in a mortgage and a car payment. Having to shell out even 10 to 20 dollars a month is hard on many Americans. Having Sirius XM included in the sticker price and car payment for the life of the car loan would go a long way towards lowering churn and increasing Satellite Radio's popularity. Could you imagine having to pay for am/fm 3 months into your new car experience?

5. Be open with Wall Street Analysts. Time and time again, I have listened to conference calls in which analysts ask direct questions and they are avoided. Sirius XM has made a gesture to be more open following the merger, but I have yet to see it .I'm not fond of many analysts, but like Mark Wienkes who single-handily destroyed SIRI stock, it might have been avoided with a little visibility. Analyst's are not traders and as such do not like to gamble. None want to be burned. They like things written in stone.

6. Stop under-promising and over-delivering. You are not microsoft. -Over-promise AND over-deliver should be the company's goal each and every quarter.

7. Take time to listen to your shareholders. I'm no fan of certain opponents of the company, but I do know many of the problems these people have caused could have been completely avoided by a 15 minute in person meeting, rather than 6 months of legal proceedings.

8. Keep Your Listeners Informed. If this lesson wasn't learned by the recent channel change fiasco, heads need to roll. Simple ad spots or DJ's can inform subscribers better than any e-mail or press release. Remember that you work for us.

4. New Services like a custom channel that subscribers could with ard drive enabled radios could take advantage of (Like Pandora). Users would go online to customize their preferences. Sirius would use some bandwidth to download content to specific radios based on preferences.

5. Album Artwork for all songs. Sirius XM is sleeping on this one. All you get is channel artwork. Why not album artwork like zune, ipod, etc.

6. Additional revenue would be huge with a simple new service. Hear a song you like? Press a Button to buy it and store in your radio. This would require that a subscriber go online to buy song credits.

7. Partner with Apple or Microsoft Soon! They lack exclusive content. They need it, and they have the devices to provide it. You have the content. This one is a no brainer.

As far as #2 goes it doesn’t make much sense at all. Something qualifies as spam if it is sent to you without you asking. It could be an ad for Ford, Sirius, or Nike shoes. It does not have to be a libido enhancing drug.

Any time you here an ad for something its because there is a market for it. Why do you think email boxes across the nation are still filling up with little blue pill ads? Because people buy them! Just because you can still get a hard on doesn’t mean others can.

I am amazed at all of the “if I don’t like it, then no one does” going on here everyday. e.g. “no one likes Bubba”, “no one cares about fox being dropped”, and now “no one likes viagra.” Reality is people did listen to Fox and Bubba and there is a huge market for as seen on tv “crap.”

I think the most important thing to do is somehow get away from these negetive people….You have here 2 very good post all positive and well thought out ideas… then there is always that someone else following behind them with their negetive post with just distructive comments and nothing constructive to add….

What is negative about what Willy said? Just because you do not agree with someone does not mean they are being negative. He made a good argument about one single point that Brandon’s article.

His point reminds me of that congressman who tried to get the Girls Gone Wild ads off the air because “no one wants to see that”. That guy never stopped to ask himself why those ads were on the air to begin with… its because the same people who voted for him actually buy those tapes. So… who was he doing a favor for?

I see 3 things that would be great
1–I totally agree with lowring the receivers to a low amount–Keep the price the same when you sign up for monthly billing, but lower it significantly if they prepay for a year or two–just like the cell phone companies
2-Yes, have a one button push to buy musice, like ITunes but to make it real competitive, have it at 50 cents per song-Have a sirius site to buy points etc but this would take business away from Itunes with a price that is half the cost
3–advertise the crap out of the above with references to the lower costs, features and how its half the price as Apple–This may not stay that way for long but get a couple of months out of it

I have discussed alot of what you have written with such as Paul Blaylock-

However they act very “governmental” in their approch to ideas-It always seemed that I was taking their valuable time away.

Their attitude -is “it is what it is it aint broke” and no sniffling shareholder is gonna change our minds-

They dont even consider ideas as you have suggested as issues for further discussion amongst themselves-Their adgenda has always seemed far from your guidlines.This transends into many of your recent articles over the simple changes in their line up.For a consumer oriented bunch as a company-they dont appear to like people much.

Brandon, Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! KNOW we are talking! This addresses the basic business model flaws of Sirius Xm. Back to basics 101. I have been so frustrated by all the talk of the inter workings of the stock itself (shorts, numbers etc.). Not that they are not important. But if you just focus on those scenerios you as a company have missed the real oppotunities that you have control of! I’ve run several businesses for over 30 years and what always was the best strategy was to look at what we can do the best that we could control internally, PERIOD! These are simple to the point observations that speak volumes. I pray to god that Mel & Company read & take this article serious. You & Tyler would do us all a great service by putting out more observations like this one. I’m telling all the regular bloggers that this is the best to the point article that I’ve seen by far. If Sirius Xm would impliment these ideas that are fundimental would take the shackles of this company and propell it to the hieghts of its own Satellites. Keep it going!

PS: Why don’t we all start talking about the needed improvements like this article states instead of the bashing & name calling. Are we progresive or crying over spilt milk. This article is the types of thing that we should be focusing on. Not who can be wittier @ bashing each other!

I’m optimistic in thinking that they are working one some of these things. They have to be! I’m thinking that their strategy is to get the refinancing locked down. Any big announcements before will not have the impact to the stock they so desperatly need. Look for big announcements after the refinancing is done! I don’t have a crystal ball, but its the only thing that makes sense. If I’m right (and I hope I am), then the stock has no where to go but up. But they need to get the refinancing done soon. REAL SOON!

I feel that under promise / over deliver, is the way to go especially in this market.

One more thing that could be added to the list Brandon is: Get rid of the censorship issues, take whatever amount of channels and set those aside for family content. The rest of the content should be straight up!!

As far as the overpriced plug @ play radios: Maybe having Audiovox as our vendor will help change that.

The advertising is a good revenue stream, and a necessary evil for those channels that they are designated for. (STEP RIGHT UP, GET YOUR MOJO PILLS RIGHT HERE!!!)

There are a lot of moving parts with this company right now, the first half of this year will be interesting to say the least!!

I have always wondered why the management of this company has such a difficult time coming up with the obvious ideas and solutions like the ones posted DAILY on this and other websites. So many of us subscribers know what we like, and know what we don’t like. There seems to be a lot of unison among the listeners, not surprising considering that we are not cut from the same cloth as the typical terrestrial radio devotee. We are, and always will be, a niche group.

These jackasses (management) don’t need to cater to the masses – all they need to do is satisfy the “niche”, the collection of sat rad lovers that have explicitly expressed precisely what they want.

There is a reason why this company is floundering like a beached whale gasping for oxygen; the management continues to ignore even the most basic desires of the subscribers. I don’t know if they are just stupid, or incredibly arrogant. I suspect it’s both.

There is no mystical secret to turning the fortunes of Sirius/Xm around. If they listen to the subscribers, REALLY LISTEN, and incorporate some of these basic principles to their anemic bussiness plan – subscriptions will go up. If, on the other hand, they continue this adversarial relationship with the subscribers, all defiant and aloof, then the subscriptions will go down. It is that simple!

Sirius/XM…. Mel…. the ball is in your court. The time has come to start careing about your customers. There’s a saying, “The customer is always right.” You might want to google it, because evidently you have never heard of this out of fashion – but true as ever – old school adage!

That male chauvinistic, politically incorrect relapse you just had was disturbing! You are disgusting. Don’t you know kids could see this? We don’t need that kind of filth on Siriusbuzz; I hope you are ashamed of yourself!!!

PS – Want to add another twister chick? We need a bench warmer! It’s the dead of winter – we need to counter the affects of cabin fever! Go for it, and I’ll get back to you.

i also think that for 2 years the companies have been in a hold position, concentrating on getting the merger approved–Now they are using all efforts to cut the fat out of XM, which was trimmed out of Sirius already and then cut to utilize the merger efficiencies–since that will bring them into a positive cash flow which then increases chances of fav refinancing–Unfortunately, they havent been able to really concentrate on growing the company as its effort is into survival right now

Some great points. After you negotiate and get your financing for a new car, you do not want something that requires more paperwork and time. Give me a 2/3 year package that I can forget. Let the 2nd owner worry about a new sub. Even better, if it could be done, a life of the car or original owner sub. Cell phone plans have a great strategy. Copy some of their features. Another point: isn’t the cell phone evolving into a media device (TV, email, web, computer, GPS, + who knows what else)? Shouldn’t SATRAD become a big part of that? Ease of use and reception are two of my biggest problems. Once a single radio can get both signals and create tailored plans from both sources I can see the appeal growing.

You made me have to do some research, you rascally rogue you! Jill Wagner you believe? Well, you made a believer out of me!!! I would like to take her for a test drive sometime, and see how she handles! I commend you for this magnificent selection – your standards are as high as ever!

Which all leads me to my pick; it looks like we are going to be adding two uber twister vixens, because you are gonna love this one long time – look up Sonia Couling. Trust me, dread, you will forget about the cold weather and the .13 stock price… at least for awhile.

Don’t forget that XM management and executives need to listen to their LISTENERS! When a listener (customer) writes in to complain or otherwise express an opinion, don’t just ignore him or send a form letter thanking them for their “feedback”. I’ve been watching the changes from XM to Sirius XM and I’m not thrilled with all of them and would like to see more improvements (although the new combined service still beats my local radio stations).

Also, Sirius XM needs to compete by running ads touting that with their service, you don’t have to search for music, download it, and keep up with it in a mobile device. You just turn it on and it’s there! That’s what I love about satellite radio in general. How many people could do the research to find the best music from genres as varied as the 40’s, the 70’s, classic R&B and jazz?

As long as the programmers continue to deliver good lineups, satellite will be a better listening experience than HD Radio or any downloadable music library.

SiriusXM needs more bandwidth on music channels therefore partner W/ibiquity to get them to Rebroadcast SiriusXM content in HD Digital Format in exchange carry HD Radio In NEW SiriusXM Interoprable satradios with the possibility of carrying local broadcast of OUT OF AREA/STATE teresteral broadcast stations. EX,; Pick up WHTQ 96.5 FM Orlando FL. “The Classic Rock Station”,In Dallas/Ft.Worth Texas in HD1,HD2 or HD3 using HD INTERNET RADIO via Satellite.Everybody’s HAPPY NOW!

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SiriusBuzz is a weblog dedicated to bringing readers in-depth coverage of Sirius XM Satellite Radio, it's competitors, and other emerging audio entertainment technology. Since 2006, Siriusbuzz has been educating and entertaining tens of thousands of fans on a daily basis.